With the holiday season approaching, it's natural for us to think of giving gifts to our customers. After all, research shows that fostering emotional engagement with customers can increase a company's revenue by up to 5%, and a well-chosen gift can certainly play a role.
However, it is also true that some customers receive bad gifts. For example, giving a chocolate cake to someone training for a triathlon or a bottle of wine to someone who is recovering can make the recipient feel unappreciated and unimportant. At best, it's a waste of money, and at worst, this interaction can lead to feelings of resentment that can ruin the relationship.
As the founder of a gift-giving consultancy (John Ruhring) and a speaker who has written and spoken extensively on networking and relationships (Dolly Clark), we've identified 5 principles that can make gift-giving in the workplace more effective. Of course, this is provided that the relevant compliance policies of the company or industry must be followed.
1. Expensive gifts are not necessary
It's easy to think that the solution to the problem of gifting a customer is to buy a higher-priced, "better" gift. Researchers have found that gift givers often believe that expensive gifts are more likely to get a positive response.
However, for the recipient, the price of the gift has nothing to do with the level of liking. In other words, gift givers tend to misjudge the recipient's needs. So, don't simply assume that everyone loves to receive designer luxury items (whether it's scarves, handbags, or alcohol).
2. Make the gift as personal as possible
Where possible (say with 5 or fewer recipients), it's ideal to personalize the gift and give something they might like around a specific person. A colleague of Dolly's had given her a small ping-pong table — one of her favorite hobbies — to sit on the balcony of the apartment she had just bought. It's an impressively personalized move. You can ask yourself the following questions:
Gifts from their hometown, or from places they recently moved out but missed, are very thoughtful.
What are their hobbies? If your customers are foodies, they're likely to appreciate a gift certificate from a top local restaurant. And, depending on the gift, it may also earn the customer accolades from their inner circle (e.g., by giving a customer a ticket to a sports game, the customer has the opportunity to become a "hero" in the team, as the TA can invite colleagues to join them).
What is most important to them? Dolly once received a gift from a colleague – a line drawing of her cat by an artist (taken from a photo on her Instagram). To this day, the painting is still on display in her home, a constant reminder of her gift giver's heart.
3. The gift should be practical
Sometimes, you may not know enough about your customers to deliver personalized gifts, or you may have too many recipients to personalize. In such cases, people tend to buy what they think is a standard gift that "everyone will like", but this will inevitably be lacking. Considering different dietary Xi and dietary restrictions, we have found that a consumable gift box (such as a basket) may not be the best choice. And it's prone to accidents: Dolly is very ashamed when she gives her uncle a fruit basket and discovers that the medicine he was taking has interacted with the grapefruit.
Instead, we recommend giving "utilitarian luxury", which is a high-quality item that the recipient can use for a long time or on a regular basis, as a regular reminder of your relationship. For example, nearly a decade ago, John gave Dolly two high-quality kitchen knives, which she now uses almost every day.
4. Make sure you're giving a gift, not an advertisement
Another important principle that is sometimes forgotten by companies is recognizing the difference between a "gift" (for the benefit of the recipient) and a "giveaway" (advertising for the company for free). Gifting a customer a sweatshirt, hat, tote bag, or anything else with your company's logo on it may be a good thing, but fundamentally, it's doing your own thing. This is likely to be seen by the recipient as PR marketing rather than a real gift.
Instead, we recommend having the customer's name printed on the item (engraving, lettering, painting, etc.). Admittedly, we need to spend more time and effort customizing the gift – such as confirming that the married couple uses the same last name – but this can turn the gift into a "family heirloom" that the recipient can be proud of. Once, a colleague gave Dory a handmade cheese plate with her name on it, and later, almost every time a guest came, Dory would bring it out and use it.
5. Don't "compete" around the end of the year
Finally, if you want to stand out from the crowd of holiday gifts, it's best to avoid holiday gifts altogether. The 15th gift a person receives is often harder to impress than the 1st. So it's a good idea to give holiday gifts before the holidays — like before Thanksgiving. That way, your gift won't easily be overshadowed by the many holiday travel and competing gifts, and if you choose to give a "practical luxury" home gift, the recipient can start using it right away, and perhaps incorporate it into their holiday traditions.
In particular, if you include a thoughtful handwritten note with your gift, your gift is likely to stand out. You don't have to write the note yourself, some gifters will help write the note according to your instructions and put it in the gift wrap.
Busy professionals never have enough time to build relationships face-to-face. But by following these thoughtful and strategic gift-giving principles, your customers will feel your presence and your appreciation for them, and they will miss you.
约翰·鲁林(John Ruhlin)多莉·克拉克(Dorie Clark)| 文
John Ruhring is the CEO and founder of the Ruhrin Group and the author of the book Giftology. Dolly Clark is a marketing strategist and keynote speaker who teaches at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and has been named one of the top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50. Her latest book is The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World.
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